Tech Card:

When a driver pays to enter an event, they are given a tech card. The driver writes his/her personal data on this card, and hands it to the inspector prior to the technical inspection.

Technical Inspection:
“Tech”

Tech is normally centrally located in the pit area and each participating car must pass a technical safety inspection prior to competing. Trained inspectors visually check the car for the presence of all safety equipment required by the governing sanctioning body. The required safety equipment is based on the car’s elapsed time and/or speed. Average daily-driven cars normally require no more than the equivalent of a state safety inspection. As the car gets faster, the required safety equipment increases. You can check the major sanctioning bodies’ web sites for their respective safety regulations (http://www.nhra.com/tech_specs/ETQuickRef.html and http://www.ihra.com/tech/2004rulebookrls.htm)

The technical inspector assigns the car a number, which is written on the window of the car and on the tech card. The number must remain on the car for the duration of the event. Track personnel use the information on this card to identify each car and driver as it enters the track.

The Tree:
“Starting the Race”

Races begin at a standing stop, with the use of two computer-controlled columns of lights, one column for each lane. This starting device is commonly referred to as a “Christmas tree” or “tree”. Lights are arranged on each side of the tree as follows: Car Controlled Starting Lights, Computer Controlled Starting Lights

Car Controlled Starting Lights:

Top Yellow – Pre-stage – Lit when the driver trips the first optic beam with his/her front tire as they approach the tree. As long as the tires are in the optic beam, this light remains lit. Rolling the front tires through this beam turns the light out.

Second Yellow – Full-stage – Lit when the driver trips the second optic beam with his/her front tire as they approach the tree. When both cars are fully staged, the track starter knows that the drivers are prepared, and the race can begin.

Computer Controlled
Starting Lights:

Three Yellow Lights – Once both racers are fully staged, the countdown begins. These lights are the visual signal to both racers when to begin. Sportsman racing classes normally turn these lights on individually, in sequence, .500 seconds apart. Professional racing classes normally turn these lights on simultaneously.

Green – The green light means GO! In sportsman racing, the green light is lit exactly .500 seconds after the third computerized yellow. Therefore, a “perfect light” or perfect reaction time would be a .500. In professional racing, the green light is lit exactly .400 seconds after the three simultaneous yellow lights. A perfect light in the professional ranks is a .400. (“perfect reaction times” described in this paragraph, refer to old-style trees with incandescent bulbs).

Red – If either driver breaks the staging beam before the green light is on, the red light comes on in the lane of the offending driver, and that driver is disqualified from the competition. This means an instant win for the other competitor.

LED Tree:

The latest innovation in race track Christmas trees, is the implementation of Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. Because of the off/on quick transition speed of these lights, a perfect light for this type of tree is .000.

Track Timers:

Computerized sensors are deployed at various points along the track to time the vehicle as it passes that distance. These sensors consist of a simple reflected beam of light which, when broken, stops the associated timer. (Think of the safety beam on your garage door opener) The first set of sensors turns on the pre-stage and full-stage lights on the tree (car controlled lights above). The remaining sensors are normally placed at 60’, 100’, 330’ and 660’, on both eighth-mile and quarter-mile tracks, with the addition of 1000’ and 1320’ on quarter-mile tracks. Both types of track also provide a timing trap to measure the average vehicle speed between two timers at the 660’ (eighth-mile) and 1320’ (quarter-mile).

Return Road:

Upon successful completion of a drag race, the cars turn off the track onto the return road, and return to the pits.

Timing Booth:

There is a small booth on the return road between the end of the track, and the pits. This booth contains a printer, which is directly connected to the timing equipment on the track. After completing a “run” or “pass” as the car passes by this booth, a person there hands the driver a slip of paper with his/her times and speeds printed on it.

Time Trials:

Drivers are given the opportunity to make a few test runs prior to each event. These runs are referred to as “time trials”. Cars respond differently to various mechanical, electrical and atmospheric changes that can occur from track to track and event to event. The time trial allows the driver to determine how the car running, and enables him/her to better predict how the car will perform during the event. Most events limit the number of time trials allowed to two or three. Many events also allow changes to the car between time trials to take the best advantage of current track conditions.

Heads-Up Racing:

In the early days of organized drag racing, cars would compete directly against one another with nothing but a flagman indicating when to launch. Raw horsepower and torque were compared between two cars from start to finish. Both cars started simultaneously and the first one to the finish line won.

The problem with this sort of competition is that the speed of the car was directly proportionate to the ingenuity of the mechanic, and the amount of money and time spent on the car. There were a few major competitors who were faster than everyone else, and the rest either competed with each other or watched.

As the major auto manufacturers began building cars with similar power/weight ratios, the major sanctioning bodies defined race classes for stock cars. Cars that fell into similar “advertised” power/weight ratios (within a given range) would compete in heads-up class events.

As time passed, with increasing federal regulation, and decreasing performance, drag racing became less popular, and more of a spectacle. Soon there were not enough cars being manufactured with sufficient similarity to group stock cars into the same classes. This necessitated staggered or “bracketed” racing. The slower car had to start earlier than the faster car. This opened up the sport to the masses.

Bracket Racing Basics:

Bracket racing was designed to allow all cars to compete on an equal footing, regardless of their individual performance capabilities. The racer’s reaction time and the car’s consistency are the two most important factors in bracket racing. Each racer must estimate their elapsed time (E.T.) and write that time on their window prior to beginning the race. This is referred to as the racer’s “dial-in”. Track personnel then enter both racers’ dial-in into the computerized timing system, in the lane they will race in.

 In theory, a 15 second Volkswagen Bug could line up against an 11 second Chevelle, and WIN!